Emergencies & environment

Preparing for a disaster starts with three things: check the risk at your location on BNPB’s InaRISK, follow BMKG early warnings and volcano alert levels on MAGMA Indonesia, then pack a go-bag and agree a family plan. Volcano alerts have four levels: Level I Normal, Level II Waspada (advisory), Level III Siaga (watch) and Level IV Awas (warning); at every level, keep out of the exclusion zone in the PVMBG recommendation and follow the local disaster agency (BPBD). If you feel a strong earthquake on the coast, do not wait for a siren: move away from the shore to high ground at once. Read the full guide.

Civil registration documents lost or damaged in a disaster are replaced free of charge by the local Dukcapil office, which can set up service posts at the disaster site or in evacuation shelters; if your record is not yet in the database, Dukcapil issues a temporary identity letter (SKPTI). Government help, such as supplies funded by BNPB’s emergency fund, Ministry of Social Affairs compensation and house-repair grants, is based on official registration, so make sure you and your family are recorded at the shelter post, with your neighbourhood head (RT/RW) or at the village or ward office. If aid is late or never arrives, ask the post or the local disaster agency (BPBD) first, then complain through SP4N-LAPOR! or the Ombudsman. Read the full guide.

ISPU (the Air Pollutant Standard Index) is a unitless number showing air quality: 0–50 Good, 51–100 Moderate, 101–200 Unhealthy, 201–300 Very Unhealthy and 301 or above Hazardous. Above 100, cut down on outdoor activity; above 200, stay indoors as much as possible, especially children, older people, pregnant women and anyone with asthma, lung disease or heart disease. If you have to go out, wear a respirator mask such as an N95 or KN95 that seals over your nose and mouth, and check the official reading on the Ministry of Environment’s ISPU portal. Read the full guide.

In the rainy season and floods, four illnesses to watch for are leptospirosis from rat urine in flood water and mud, dengue fever from Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, diarrhoea from contaminated water and food, and flu and other respiratory infections. Get medical help promptly for a fever after contact with flood water, for dengue warning signs such as nose or gum bleeding, persistent vomiting, stomach pain or cold hands (even after the fever has gone down), for signs of dehydration, or for breathlessness. To prevent them, avoid flood water or wear rubber boots, do 3M Plus every week, wash your hands with soap, drink water boiled until it bubbles, and cover your coughs. Read the full guide.

Heat stroke is a medical emergency: body temperature climbs very high, sweating can stop, and the person becomes confused, has a seizure or collapses. Call 119 or go to A&E, and meanwhile move the person into the shade and cool them with wet cloths, cold compresses or a fan. Heat exhaustion is milder, with a headache, heavy sweating, pale clammy skin and nausea; treat it with rest somewhere cool, fluids and cooling the body, and see a health worker if the symptoms do not go away. Read the full guide.

If wells or water sources in your area are drying up, tell the village or urban ward (kelurahan) office or the regency or city disaster agency (BPBD) straight away; the national disaster agency BNPB asks people to report as soon as water becomes hard to get, so that clean water, usually brought by tanker, reaches the right places. In Jakarta, the BPBD points residents to Jakarta Siaga 112 in an emergency, and PAM Jaya customers whose supply is disrupted can ask for a tanker through the 1500 223 call centre. Keep water in clean, covered containers and boil drinking water, because contaminated water can spread diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery and typhoid. Read the full guide.

Report any smoke or fire, however small, to the local disaster agency (BPBD) or fire service, as the national disaster agency BNPB advises; if fire is approaching homes, call 113 or 112. Clearing land by burning is banned by Law 32/2009 and, for smallholders and plantation companies, by Law 39/2014; since 2 January 2026 the penalty is up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to category VI (Rp2,000,000,000) under Law 1/2026. A hotspot on a satellite map is not always a fire, and to protect your family from smoke, check the ISPU air quality reading and wear a respirator mask when you have to go out. Read the full guide.